Walk It Out Wednesday: The Expiration of Isolation – Pastoral Panel
Expiring Isolation: Finding Deliverance, Purpose, and Community Through Divine Participation (Exodus 12)
This summary outlines the theological and practical steps necessary for believers to move from a season of isolation into deliverance and destiny, drawing extensively from the biblical account of the Exodus (specifically Chapter 12). The central theme is that deliverance requires active participation from the believer, not just divine intervention. Isolation, while sometimes serving as a protective incubator, must have an expiration date.
1. Understanding Isolation: Purpose, Pain, and Expiration
Isolation, whether self-imposed or externally caused, is a pervasive human experience. However, the Bible teaches that seasons of isolation have a set expiration date determined by God.
The Dual Nature of Isolation
Isolation is often described as feeling misunderstood, even when surrounded by people. Individuals may isolate emotionally, mentally, or spiritually within relationships, corporate settings, or friendships.
Isolation can be likened to flipping a coin—it is not entirely bad, and not entirely good:
- Isolation as an Incubator/Protection: What began as a family seeking refuge in Egypt became a protection. Moses was placed in the Nile River, which served as a hiding place from the Pharaoh who sought to kill all Hebrew male boys. The water is representative of God’s Word, and Moses was carried by the Word.
- Isolation as Enslavement/Devastation: If believers stay too long in an isolated place where they have grown comfortable, it can become devastating and lead to enslavement. This happens when individuals are released from isolation, but their mind still remains isolated.
Sources of Isolation
Isolation is caused by various factors, some within personal control and some outside of it:
- External Causes: Isolation can be based on a condition (like the 10 lepers who were isolated by law and community norms), family background, disease, or calamity. Society sometimes isolates individuals based on labels or differences in appearance, sound, or behavior.
- Internal Causes: Isolation can be born of trauma, fear of betrayal, or learned coping mechanisms, leading individuals to believe they must figure things out on their own. Furthermore, sometimes people fall in love with darkness.
2. The Exodus Blueprint: From Bondage to Breakthrough
The Book of Exodus serves as a template for exiting a season of confinement. The children of Israel, though multiplying and winning in one area of life, were still enslaved, showing that multiplication of followers or success does not equal victory in every area.
Deliverance Requires Participation
The final plague, the death of the firstborn, was different from the previous nine because it required the participation of the Israelites to secure their freedom. Deliverance is not just something God does for us, but something He does with us and through us.
- Taking Off the Clothes/Rolling Away the Stone: Like the resurrection of Lazarus, God performs the call, but the people must roll away the stone and take off the grave clothes.
- Facing the Dirt: Participation is required because the individual knows their dirt—the tears cried, the sins committed, the buried issues that must rise up again for greatness. You cannot get free from what you won’t face.
The Lamb and the Blood
To achieve deliverance from the final plague, the Hebrews had to introduce a lamb into the house. This instruction outlines the required participation:
- Selection and Cost: The lamb had to be a spotless, one-year-old male lamb. The text suggests the family had to raise and nurture this lamb for 10 days, making the sacrifice personal and highlighting that the anointing costs something.
- Consumption: The entire lamb had to be eaten. This is equated to the necessity of digesting the whole Word of God, not just reading it.
- Application: The most crucial step was the application of the blood onto the doorposts (horizontal) and the lentils (vertical). This is a scale model of the cross, picturing the body of Christ.
The blood covers humanity (represented by the wood of the door). The angel of death never saw the homes; it only saw the blood, signifying that death had already occurred, allowing the angel to pass over. The blood of Jesus delivers us from the penalty of sin (justification) and the power of sin (sanctification).
Prepared for the Exit
The children of Israel were instructed to be ready to leave—wearing their sandals and cloaks and not eating the meal relaxed. This faith-activated readiness, even in the darkness, was required because they did not know this was the last plague.
- Resetting the Clock: God’s deliverance involved resetting the time from Egyptian time to a new month, a new season of freedom. An exodus brings a new calendar year and a different season of prosperity or provision, even when the rest of the world is in a negative season.
3. The Mandate for Mutual Ministry and Overflow
The expiration of isolation is not only personal but communal, requiring Christians to engage and serve others.
Breaking Isolation Through Invasion
Isolation cannot break until God is invited to invade the space. When God’s light is shed on a dark area, the oppression breaks.
- Humility as a Tool: The tool of humility (hyssop branch) introduces the Lamb (Christ) into one’s life.
- Dealing with Blame and Fear: God cannot move effectively if participation is based on blame, fear, bitterness, or anger. Believers must respond by faith, activating the peace, power, and purpose available in God.
Community and Overflow
The instruction to share the lamb with another household if one’s family was too small emphasizes the collaborative effort of deliverance.
- Benevolence: Overflow, or abundance, should be used for benevolence and the deliverance of others. God is more interested in working through us than for us.
- Trusting God’s Provision: God uses isolated seasons to teach the believer to be thankful for daily bread, preparing them for a mindset where they receive only enough for that day, preventing the hoarding that plagues modern culture.
4. Practical Steps for Exiting Isolation into Purpose
Exiting isolation requires practical, spiritual action and commitment.
Re-Entry into Ministry and Purpose
A major concern for those leaving isolation is transitioning into purpose and ministry.
- Purpose as a Journey: Purpose is not a destination but a journey or evolution. It is the reason a thing exists, and it changes across seasons (e.g., mother, author, entrepreneur).
- The Cocoon Phase: Isolation is often the cocoon stage—dark and uncomfortable, but necessary for shedding layers and becoming the butterfly.
- Managing Trauma: The isolation period is important for detoxing from the old self and learning how to manage trauma from the old world.
- Reintroducing the New Self: Believers must reintroduce themselves to family and friends, declaring, “I am stepping out of who you all used to know me as and I am walking into who God has called me to be”.
Finding and Encouraging Others
When addressing mental and emotional isolation in others, pure, intentional relationship is the key.
- Establishing Trust: Trust requires time, as isolation is often rooted in past betrayal. When asking, “Are you good?” the essential step is to wait for the response and sit in the presence of the other person without rushing.
- Meeting the Younger Self: The path to restoration often involves the grown person meeting the “little girl” or “little boy” inside—the joyous, abundant self—and telling them to rise.